Do you wonder how and when you should sift your ingredients? Is sifting really necessary?

For most recipes where you use a stand mixer - like cakes, cookies, cheesecakes - it's fine to combine your dry ingredients with a whisk. Whisking breaks up most lumps, including when you're incorporating cocoa powder (which can be clumpy).

When should you sift? When the recipe calls for it! Sifting is called for when you are folding dry ingredients gently into delicate, wet batter like angel food cake or our recent madeleines. 

Do you need a sifter? We don't use one. We use a fine-mesh sieve over a piece of parchment paper or a bowl. A sieve can be used in many other ways and justifies its place in our kitchen.

Happy Baking!

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This quick recipe combines the moistness and sweetness of banana bread with little hints of tartness from blueberries. The combo muffins are great for breakfast or a snack.

We made our version with a combination of fresh and frozen berries, adding frozen berries to the top just before baking for a little cuteness. We also use fat-free yogurt, which makes the muffins lower in calories, but perhaps not quite as moist as with full-fat yogurt. We didn't miss the extra fat on the first day, but we think that using a higher-fat yogurt would extend the shelf life of these little treats.

We used our mixer and SideSwipe for this recipe (as always). It makes mashing the bananas and creaming everything together a breeze. Just remember with a quick bread like this to use slower mixer speeds and to mix only until ingredients are combined. Otherwise you'll end up with a tougher textured end result.

Fold your blueberries by hand. They're too fragile for the mixer!

​Makes 24 standard size muffins or 48 mini-muffins. Best within a day or so of baking.
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This is a great topping for Irish coffee, hot chocolate or a chocolate dessert. Super simple to make in your stand mixer with SideSwipe or a whisk attachment. Watch the video to see how easily it comes together!

Pour ingredients into the chilled bowl of your mixer. Beat on medium speed until soft peaks form. Serve immediately. Keep any leftovers refrigerated until ready to use. May lose some volume as it sits.

The price of natural vanilla extra is climbing, and with higher demand and lower production, it's likely this trend will continue for many years. If you want to know why the prices are increasing, click on our previous post here.

We went looking for other options to see how bakers who use a lot of vanilla can get creative to save money. Here are our ideas and reviews of these options.

1.  Buy at warehouse clubs. This is not earth-shatteringly creative, but it's actually the best and most practical option that we found if you must use real vanilla in your recipes. We found the best price per ounce from our local Costco, but Sam's Club also has a good price. 

2. Use artificial vanilla in baked recipes. According to experts and our own tests, almost nobody can tell the difference between real and artificial vanilla in baked goods, especially when the vanilla is not the predominant flavor in the dessert - like chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, recipes featuring cinnamon, molasses, ginger, lemon, almond and orange.

3. Save real vanilla for non-cooked recipes, like frosting and ice cream. You may also want to use real vanilla for baked goods where vanilla is the star flavor.

4. Skip the vanilla in recipes where you don't really taste it.  Again, just leave it out of recipes for chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, and recipes featuring cinnamon, molasses, ginger, lemon, almond and orange. Vanilla extract is typically 35 percent alcohol, which evaporates, so the amount of liquid you will be eliminating from recipes should not effect the baked results.

5. Don't bother with vanilla powder. We tried the powder made from dried and ground vanilla beans, and found that their flavor was not very strong. It looks pretty, especially in something like ice cream, but it was not a cost-effective way to add vanilla flavor to baked goods.

6. Make your own extract from vanilla beans.  We are making our own extract right now and the recipe is below. It is definitely cheaper to make your own, but that doesn't figure in the time element. It takes about 6 months to achieve the same vanilla flavor using the conservative recipe below. You can get extract sooner, but you'll need to double the number of beans. Don't believe people who post that they had great extract in 6 weeks!

MAKE YOUR OWN VANILLA COSTS
$18.....750ml (approx 25 ounce) bottle of cheap vodka
$24.....10 Grade B vanilla beans (prices vary)
TOTAL
$42 for 25 ounces = $1.68 per ounce

Costco's 16-ounce bottle costs about $33, which is $2.06 per ounce. If you want faster results and/or plan to dilute your vodka to achieve an industry-standard vanilla extract alcohol level*,  your will need to add more beans, thus adding to your total cost. 

7. Make your own vanilla using "used" Grade A vanilla beans. This is the most cost effective way to make your own extract. If you use vanilla beans in a recipe, throw your discarded bean pods into some vodka and let them soak. You'll need patience for this option, as it, too takes many months for the extract to be ready. But the real cost to you is just the cost of the vodka, as you were planning to use the beans anyway.

8. Make vanilla sugar using spent vanilla pods. This is one of the easiest ways to add some vanilla essence to your desserts. It's best for when vanilla is the star of the dessert, but can be used in any recipe. Simply store your spent, dried vanilla pods in a tightly sealed container of granulated sugar. Your sugar will take on the vanilla scent and flavor.
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• 750ml bottle of cheap vodka (we used 70 percent alcohol, but you can use 35 percent if you can find it.
• At least 10 Grade B vanilla beans (4-6 inches long). You can also use 10 Grade B beans and 10 spent vanilla bean pods (or vanilla powder if you don't mind speckled extract.) If your beans are dry and shriveled, you may need to use more for best results.

• Insert the pods into the vodka bottle, or use a clean, decorative bottle. You may need to pour off some of the vodka if the bottle is filled very high.
• Store out of sunlight in a temperature-controlled room (your kitchen works!) for 3-6 months, checking it and shaking it every so often. 
• You can dilute or use as-is.